LABOUR will not countenance anything other than regaining its Assembly majority in the run-up to May’s election, Business Minister Jane Hutt said today.

She dismissed suggestions of poor polling data and allegations that Labour’s tactic of concentrating its fire on the Tories’ record in office was creating a negative campaign.

“There is no talk of anything but us coming through as we did in 2003,” she told the Assembly Government’s weekly press briefing.

Ms Hutt said UK polls which put David Cameron’s party in the lead did not mean Welsh Labour’s prospects for May 3 were bleak.

The Conservatives climbed two points to 38% with Labour down three to 30% – a four-month low – according to Populus research for the Times today.

Ms Hutt said the poll could not be extrapolated across the border because Welsh Labour’s distinctive brand and Rhodri Morgan “firmly and clearly exercising leadership” gave it the “cutting edge” with Welsh voters.

“It was just before Christmas that a Welsh Labour government delivered a budget here which is now double the budget we had when we came into power nearly eight years ago,” she said.

“We recognise that confidence has grown in devolution.”

She listed Assembly Government achievements, such as scrapping prescription charges, which had gone down well with the public.

The Government’s rejection of private finance initiatives as a means to build hospitals was an example of how Welsh Labour “stood out”, Ms Hutt said.

The threat of a Conservative First Minister at the head of a grand coalition is a key part of Labour’s election strategy, despite Plaid Cymru insisting it would not serve as a junior party to the Tories.

Last week, Labour posted a video it described as “too offensive for television” on the website YouTube attacking the Conservatives’ record in Wales during the 1980s and 90s.

Tory Assembly leader Nick Bourne said such “smear and sneer is just the sort of thing which is turning people off politics altogether”.

Ms Hutt responded: “I’m a very positive politician and I believe in positive campaigning on what people want to hear. They want to hear what Welsh Labour has done for us and our communities.”

She added: “As we have said, we are the only party that has said they are clearly not going to go into a coalition with the Tories and I think – let’s let the other parties spend their conferences speculating about who they want to get into bed with.”